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Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Drew and I are basically the moving/ rental King and Queen. We've been married for two years and moved three times....yikes! (This is where I should insert a HUGE thanks to all our friends and family who have helped us move all these times!)Until Drew finishes school and we know where we'll be living for a while, we have to keep renting. Most rentals are just rentals, no big deal. But moving from our last house to this apartment has been bittersweet for me. We've down graded to something cheaper so I can stay home with Claire part time, which is a huge blessing, but leaving the place where so many crazy memories were made makes me sad. I know I'm probably over sentimental thanks to my lovely post pregnancy hormones, but I can't help but reminisce as we leave our old place.

This was the house where we found out we were having a baby!

This house I was pregnant in. The house in which I stood in front of the same white door every week to take my belly picture.

This was my last picture before we left for the hospital, not my most gorgeous moment!

It's the house that had Claire's first nursery, that Drew and I worked so hard on while anxiously awaiting our little girl.

It's the house I went into labor in

My lovely husband decided that I need a "in labor" picture....can you tell how thrilled I was?

And its the house we first brought Claire home to; where we first became a family.

Claire first bath, her first smile, her first full night of sleep...they were all in that house. It's hard to leave behind our memories, but like Drew keeps reminding me: It's just a house, our home is wherever the three of us are together. So today I said goodbye to our first home as a family. So now I will go snuggle my little girl and kiss my husband goodnight, in our new place that the three of us will make into a home :)

Monday, August 29, 2011

I have a feeling I'll say this every time, but I still can't believe another month has gone by! Our little girl is growing so fast, and I can't believe how much development can happen in just a month. Here are Claire's 2 month stats and accomplishments:

Weight: 13 lbs 8.5 oz (95th percentile)

Height: 24.75" long (past the 95th percentile. We have one tall little girl!)

Head Circumference: 16" (92nd percentile)

-Still loves her bath time, and is getting better at not screaming when we take her out

-She's wearing 3 month Carters, but some of them are getting too short! So we've graduated to some of the 6 month clothes now.

-Has two teeth just below the gums on the bottom. Yes, thats right I said teeth. It's crazy I know, but the pediatrician said some kids just get teeth early, and it could still be a while before they actually break though.

- Moved to our new house this month! Claire did great. She loved to sit in her bouncy and watch everyone bring in new boxes for her to look at.

-Still hates tummy time, but her head control is getting better which makes it a little more tolerable.

-Smiles ALOT, which of course mommy and daddy are thoroughly enjoying!

-Bed time routine: Bath at 7:45pm, eat, cuddle, then swaddle and go to bed between 9 and 9:30pm. She usually sleeps 9:30pm to anywhere between 3:00 am and 4:00am but we have had the occasional 9pm-5am stretch :)

-Follows objects and people with her eyes and is working on moving her head to follow them too!

-Still loves to look at ceiling fans and lights over her mommy and daddy.

-Had her first round of shots today. I think mama was more traumatized than she was :)

Here she is, my adorable 2 month old girl!

And of course here are a few of our failed attempts at getting a smile... I love her little scowl in the first one!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Well its only taken me two months to finally post pictures of Claire's nursery

(Don't worry, it was actually done and ready for her before we brought her home, I just never took pictures!)

Her nursery was quite the project for Drew and I. I had decided in the beginning that I was going to make her crib bedding. I found a modern quilt pattern at a little store here in Corvallis. This is probably the time I should mention that I had never made an actual quilt before! When we found out we were having a girl, my mom and I took a trip to fabric depot to pick out some fabric. After texting pictures back and forth, Drew and I decided on a fun coral and teal print fabric; I should have realized then how hard it would be to find things to match!

We bought our crib online, but we couldn't find a dresser or changing table that we really liked, so we decided to re-finish one we found at a second hand store. After we finished the dresser, Drew finished his parents old rocking chair too! More on those transformations here

Claire loves that bird decal! We'll lay her down to change her diaper and she will just lay there and smile and stare at her bird; it's so cute!

See those moving boxes in the background? Yeah I figured if I wanted pictures I better do it before we moved; talk about procrastinating!

Don't mind the empty frame :) It will get filled someday.

Claire's quilt

Grandma and Grandpa Arnold's old rocking chair, with the quilt Grandma Arnold made for Claire.

Okay, is this not the cutest diaper cake you've ever seen? I haven't been able to convince myself to take it apart; it's just too adorable!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

On Thursday last week Drew presented his project he's been working on during Blount's annual Protofest. Being the non engineer that I am I will try to explain what I understand about the project: Blount has an electrical chain saw that they are creating a brake for. When the chain saw kicks back to a certain degree the saw's break will stop the saw. So Drew has been designing the brake for the system. Here's hoping little miss gets her daddy's smarts :) Drew is probably reading this laughing at me, because I have no idea what the heck I'm talking about!

Anyways, its been long days for Drew and lots of traveling back and forth from Philomath to Gresham for all of us, but Claire and I couldn't be more proud! We went down Blount in the afternoon to see all of Drew's hard work in person.

Drew and his project

The saw!

Our little family at protofest

*Side story: I was carrying Claire in her moby at Protofest, and a few minutes after this picture was taken I felt something warm. Sure enough I look down and Claire has peed through her diaper, her clothes, the moby, and both of my shirts. Awesome. The real kicker was that we were going out to dinner with friends straight from Protofest. I brought an extra outfit for Claire, but obviously didn't think I needed one for me too! Sorry Jordan and Amanda if I smelled like pee at dinner, now you know why :)

Thursday, August 11, 2011

I saw these peanut butter-salty-chocolatey-goodness on pintrest and couldn't stop thinking of them! So I caved and made a batch of them. Oh my goodness they taste as good as they look (well the ones on pintrest looked a little nicer than mine, but I has juggling a newborn while dipping them in chocolate)

First you make the peanut butter mixture and roll it into little balls

Then sandwich the peanut butter in between two pretzels. Stick them in the fridge to set for about 30 minutes.

Melt some chocolate chips in the microwave for dipping. If your like me, you would insert a crying newborn into the picture right about now.

Dip half of the little sandwiches into the chocolate and let them harden.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Isn't it funny how you think you have your life all planned out, and then God reminds you that it's not about your plans, its about his plan?

I never thought I would get married at 20.

But I found the love of my life freshman year of college.

I NEVER thought I would be pregnant at 22

But God surprised us with a huge blessing

(yep that's me, 31 weeks preggo)

I thought for sure we were having a little boy.

Surprise again! We found we were having a little girl February 10th 2011

In my mind, Drew and I would be graduated from college, have bought a house, and then got pregnant.....

(Insert God laughing here)

In reality, Drew is finishing his masters, we are living part time with my parents for the summer while Drew does an internship, and we are moving to a smaller apartment so I can stay home part time.

Hmm, I think maybe God forgot to listen to me.

This past year has been such a learning experience in patience and trust. I'm still learning to let go, but if the past is any indication of how God's plan always works out, I think we'll be in a good place :)

Sure, life isn't how I thought it would be, but God has truly blessed us with an even better life than I could have imagined.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Every summer we've been in Corvallis, we always hit up the Benton County fair. Last summer we went with the Hammagrens; its crazy to think that last year Becca was newly pregnant, and I wasn't even pregnant yet! We decided to carry on the tradition this year; we packed up the babies and went for a short day at the fair.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

We have been spending every other week (sometimes longer) in Portland at my parents house while Drew is working on a project at Blount Inc. Let me tell you, traveling with a newborn is exhausting! And now we are on the brink of moving, so between packing, unpacking, and then packing some more I have totally neglected the blog! To make up for it I thought I'd post some pictures of my ridiculously adorable (okay, yes I am a teensy bit biased) little girl.